Role of civil society in the democratization process: the case of Lebanon

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to uncover the extent to which Lebanese civil society can contribute to social and political changes and be an agent to the democratization process. The study also aims at presenting an appraisal of the reality of the Lebanese civil society in terms of advocating for changes and reforms according to civil society activists through the case of the “Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform “(CCER). The study contributes to the growing body of research on the role of civil society in democratization process. Interviews were conducted with organizers of CCER in Lebanon and key civil society activists as a method of collecting data. The case of the CCER was chosen a research for the purpose of extracting factors and conclusions from this specific experience and making it available to the general public. Six parameters were used to draw an appraisal of the CCER case and they are: advocacy and campaigning means, methods of awareness dissemination, methods of communication and networking , internal organization , political framework, and socio-economic factors. Results show that civil society organizations in Lebanon have limited influence over state policies and further confirm the literature that most of the civil society organizations’ impact is through welfare provisioning rather than public and political advocacy. For civil society to be a countervailing power against state domination and corruption, and thus be an agent toward democratization in Lebanon it needs to be better organized and acquire proficiency in networking and associating for cooperative action. It also needs to be more realistic in approaching Lebanese politics given the constraints that confessional consociational politics places on movements of civil society.